


Prologue: Carry Forward

by JetnessAffliction



Series: Constellations [1]
Category: Legend of the Galactic Heroes - Fandom
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-20
Updated: 2020-04-20
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:34:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23749999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JetnessAffliction/pseuds/JetnessAffliction
Summary: "Schönkopf is transfixed as he watches a conductor backlit by the viewport full of stars. When Yang finishes, the atmosphere of melancholy hasn’t thinned out, but it has become more clear."Prologue up, ongoing. Notes and more pairings as each section is updated.
Relationships: Jessica Edwards/Jean Robert Lappe/Yang Wenli, Walter von Schenkopp/Yang Wenli
Series: Constellations [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1710874
Comments: 5
Kudos: 19





	Prologue: Carry Forward

**Late June, 798 UC**

There are a few gulps left in the bottle, but Yang is comfortable at his current plateau, with the floor still solid under his boots and the knowledge that a second bottle is safely hidden away in his locker. He has poured out for three, and drank all but two glasses. It was now a year since the Stadium Incident at Heinessenpolis. It had taken that long for a handful of his days to be peaceful enough to look backwards, and with the headlines and sound bites filling every corner of Iserlohn Fortress with memorials and solemn speeches glorifying the deceased, he had retreated to his ready room and stayed there well past decent hours. 

Walter von Schönkopf had come, then, likewise beyond decency. But not to “check up” on his commanding officer or even send him home. By his own admission, he had come simply to drink, nothing else. This is the only reason Yang allowed him to stay. Yang is too lost in memory to pour the other man a drink when Schönkopf enters, he only hands him the scant remains of the current bottle. Then, eyes unfocused, he retreats to his own glass.

But it isn't a year back that he is recalling. Yang is unsure of the moment it happened, of what he was doing or saying at the time it actually happened, only later, when he had heard the news. In lieu of this gap in memory, he reaches further back. And with each sip of burning amber, he is younger. They had all been so young.

Yang suddenly hears Jessica playing the violin, hears Jean Robert clapping enthusiastically, laughing into the wind, and he begins making drunken swipes in the air. At first he only raises his shoulders, arms heavy and stiff. But when the memory becomes more than just a moving photograph, the music takes over, and his arms move on their own, eyes fixed beyond the steel bulkhead to the expanse of cold silence and stars. To suns and moons beyond his reach. Schönkopf is transfixed as he watches a conductor backlit by the viewport full of stars. When Yang finishes, the atmosphere of melancholy hasn’t thinned out, but it has become more clear. 

“You were in love with her.”

Yang quietly retrieves the nearly empty glass from where he set it. He tosses it back, words bubbling to the surface as he stares above the rim to Schönkopf. He suppresses a small cough, then finally, “I loved her. I loved him.” He takes a forced breath, steadying on and setting down the empty glass. “I loved them both. I don’t know.”

“Then make up your mind,” Schönkopf speaks as he always does, without any regard for the way his words hit Yang, unerringly on target. The older man lets the words settle deep, caving in the room. Quietly, almost reverently, he picks up the whiskey glasses in front of the framed photograph. The one poured for Jessica Edwards, he holds out to Yang, and the other, poured for Jean Robert Lapp, he holds himself. 

Yang whispers his protest, a beat too late. “There’s no need to, now.” 

Schönkopf lightly taps Yang’s chest with the bottom of the glass, thudding softly over his heart. “No, you need to decide. Accept it. Because if you loved them, then they took part of you when they left this world. By the same exchange, part of them will always belong to you.” Schönkopf’s voice shifts lower, with enough depth for both of them. “Carry them forward. Carry them as long as you breathe.” 

Stunned by the force of those few words, Yang can only surrender. 

Schönkopf holds his glass as he watches Yang finally accept. “As for the remaining parts of your lost loves…” He raises his own glass and drinks, eyes never breaking from Yang’s, “May you find those in other souls, the ones still here.”

It’s not a proper toast, not anymore, and the light in Schönkopf’s eyes is enough of a sign. Yang realizes Schönkopf is more than just a few paces ahead of him. They swallow.

[tbc]

**Author's Note:**

> Each man is a galaxy, and prologue brought to you by this NASA archive photo of the day: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2019/hubble-watches-stars-in-bloom
> 
> soundtrack: Gustav Mahler - Symphony No. 5 in C Sharp Minor


End file.
